Since You've Been Gone
by Mikaela Rose Malfoy
Summary: Rhianna Graham was the love of Sirius Blacks life. But then she disappeared without a trace. No one knew where she went. But this is her story told to her daughter Lily as she remembers a time long ago.
1. Prologue

b Summary: /b Rhianna Graham a woman that was closely connected to Lily Evans and the Marauders she retells a tale to her daughter Lily about how she came to Hogwarts in her 6th year and met the people that would change her life forever. This tells the tale of her adventures and how it came to be that Rhianna left the only thing that truly ever meant anything to her. I'll rivert back and forth between Rhianna's thoughts and normal storytelling.

b Author's Notes: /b This is an AU story and you'll see why when the story progresses. Also Anna is supposed to look like Jennifer Garner and her daughter Lily is supposed to look like Emmy Rossum.

b Disclaimer: /b None of these characters belong to me they belong to the genius that is J.K Rowling. The ones that belong to me are Rhianna and Lily Graham and Isabella Hayward.

Prologue

i I stare down at the letter in my hands that the owl has just brought to me. Professor Albus Dumbledore wants me to teach. That's kind of rich isn't it? The man that exiled me away from all the people that I loved, and who loved me wants me to come back. Okay, so maybe he didn't quite exile me. He was trying to protect me. I was pregnant and scared out of my mind when I'd seen what Voldemort had done to others, and I had been foolish enough to accept the offer to go back to Italy. /i 

i Before Lily and James died, I was ready to go back, take Lily, and go back to Scotland. But then it happened. My world was torn apart by the threads that seemed to keep my heart together, the very person that from the minute I met her on the train was my best friend. She was beautiful and kind and the best friend anyone could ever ask for, and she was taken away. How unfair was it that the world should lose such a beautiful soul? I remember a day that we just sat under a tree in the back garden of her and James' house and talked about anything and everything. Little did I know that that would be the last real talk I'd ever have with her. /i i The next week would be hell. /i 

i Dumbledore asking me to come to his office and telling me I had to leave, and that I was in trouble but I couldn't tell anyone else. Not Lily, not James, and especially not Sirius. That was the first time my world seemed to split in half. The second time was when I received that letter from Dumbledore telling me that they were gone. Gone? I'd asked myself, "How could they ?" No, it couldn't be true. She would be okay. I'd go back and she'd be waiting for me. Sirius would not exactly be happy, but we'd had fights before we'd survive this, but Lily. Lily Evans-Potter, my best friend, the only person who knew everything about me, was gone. I'd never be able to talk to her again, and our children would never be able to play together. I sigh and look down at the only thing I have left of her world: a locket. I smile and trace it, then I hear someone knock on the door. /i 

"Mum?" A quiet voice asks from behind the door. i Ah yes. My little girl, my little angel, the only other person I took with me when I left all those years ago. All right, no one but me knew she existed, but thats not exactly the point here. /i 

I sighed and looked down at my hands. Then I looked over at the door. I brushed a tear that had been running down my face that I never knew had been there. "Come in Lils," I said softly. She opened the door and peered over at me and tilted her head innocently to the side with a smile. i My beautiful baby girl with her long curly brown hair and the stunning blue eyes that would set her apart from anything that the world would throw at her. Seeing her face or hearing her laugh could always brighten up my day. But today I'm not entirely sure it would as the world today just seems to be more horrible than it was any other. She had just come home from school and by the look on her face, someone told her I'd resigned. /i "I guess you want to know why."

Lily came over and sat down beside me and nodded. "Yes, Mum. I mean why would you quit? You love it here! You've said it all the time," she said looking at me, confused. i How could I explain this without sounding like I'm losing my mind, which quite possibly I may as well be going through right now. That world where I had Lily, Sirius, James and Remus...I'd say that other name, but it was far too horrible. He'd destroyed that world that day. And for that I will never forgive him. Peter Pettigrew, a man when I first met him I didn't understand at all why the other three even bothered to be friends with him. It confused me to no end. And he betrayed them for what? For a man or beast who would come falling to his knees after this war was through. I am willing to go back there and retake what I'd left behind. That man was too smart for his own good. /i 

I sighed and looked at her and then back at the locket in my hands. Sirius had given me this on my 17th birthday. i He'd also told me that day that I would one day be his wife. It seemed like a dream back then that one day, after we left school and finished our training, that indeed we would be husband and wife, and we've have those 2 kids. Perhaps I was naive back then to think that I would live my dreams. Or perhaps I just wanted to believe that they would happen. Lily put her hand over mine. I looked up and met her eyes. They were looking at me imploringly for some explanation. /i "I'm going back to Hogwarts. Albus Dumbledore has offered me a place as a professor," I said quietly. I looked down and opened the locket. "Lils, there is something I have to tell you."

Lily looked at me. I had a sure feeling that she was going to be in for a big shock. I'd told her from an early age that her father was dead. How do you tell your daughter that her father's in prison for something he never did? That was even a bit disagreeable for me to stomach. Lily was only 16. God only knows how she would take it.

"What is it mum?" She asked quietly.

I bit my lip and looked down at my hands. They were trembling, like how I was feeling inside. I got the courage from god knows where and looked her in the eyes.

"I have been lying all these years," I muttered and looked at her. She was looking at me oddly like I was some sort of maniac. "Your father, Sirius Black, isn't dead." I saw Lily swallow and the tears well up in her eyes. I'd only told her about James and Lily about three years ago. "The reason I didn't tell you was because he spent 12 years in Azkaban for the supposed murder of Peter Pettigrew and for betraying Lily and James."

Lily looked at me with sorrow in her eyes. The tears were running down her face. I knew that this would hurt her. She bit her lip and looked at me.

"But James and Lily were killed 15 years ago. What happened to him?" She asked, her lower lip trembling. She bit it like she usually did. I knew that she hated to know the answer, and that she didn't really want to know it.

I gave her the newspaper clipping and brought my knees up under me and then thought about the box that I had kept from her years before. I got up as she was reading it and went to my closet. I opened a panel in the wardrobe and brought out a box. I passed my hand over the lid. It was a beautifully carved box made of mahogany. My father had given it to me the first day I left for Hogwarts. He told me that I could keep all my secrets and everything else in it if I wished. He also told me that it had belonged to my great-grandmother who had passed it to his mother, and then she gave it to him because she never had a girl to pass it too. So I'd put everything in it secret letters, pictures, and all the girl stuff that you could think of were captured in this box. I blew the dust off of it, and came over to Lily, put it down on the bed, and sat down. Lily looked up. "This is all the stuff. I have pictures of him and newsclippings of everything that I know," I said. I unfolded an article and smiled as I saw a picture of James, Lily, Sirius and me in the past, waving. It was like the past was waving back at me. It was the summer after we had left Hogwarts. We were spending the summer at James' house. I remember that was a good summer. I remember one day, it was about a week before Sirius and I were to start our Auror training, and I was leaning back against Sirius and he was leaning against a tree. I was wrapped safely in his arms, and that's all I needed for some really odd reason. It was peaceful and quiet and nothing was disturbing us. He kissed my cheek, and then took out a ring. It certainly wasn't what I'd been expecting. The world seemed to stand still in that one minute until I through my arms around him and hugged him tightly saying yes. He'd joked that he'd never been able to even ask the question before I tried to tackle him.

Lily picked up the picture and gazed down at it. She looked at her father. She knew what James and Lily looked like because I have pictures of them all over the place. I even have a picture of Harry as a baby somewhere, and another picture from a newspaper clipping of him now.

She looked at me and said, "Where is he now?"

I shrugged and shook my head. Dumbledore never told me that, but I had always presumed that he was at his parents' old house in Grimmauld Place. She'd been there once and she always thought it looked so cold. It was a weird kind of cold, like there was no life in the place, like all of the lifehad been drained from the entire house and no one knew how to live in it. That's truly the only way I could explain how that place made me feel when I'd stepped into it. But being with no life, no wonder Sirius' mother looked like the walking dead. So that probably had something to do with it.

"I don't know. Dumbledore never told me that. He just sent me the clipping," I said. I took her hand and placed the pendent in her open palm and closed her fingers on it. "You should have it. There's a picture of me and Sirius inside. He put a protection spell over it when he gave it to me."

Lily looked inside and gasped. She gave a little smile as the pictures looked back at her. I rocked back on my heels and looked at her.

"I'll take good care of it," she said. She leaned over and hugged me. I hugged her back. She looked at me and passed me the pendant. I smiled and opened the clasp as she pulled her hair back and I put it on her. She then turned around and tilted her head. "You never told me how you two met. I mean, most people should know how their parents met."

I laughed and shook my head. That was certainly a tale to tell. I couldn't really remember everything, but she was looking at me with her puppy dog eyes, and I couldn't resist. I brushed my hair behind my ear and nodded.

"All right, I'll tell you. But first of all, I have to tell you that I'm going back, and I don't want to run this time," I said.

Lily nodded and looked down at the locket around her neck and gave a slight smile. "All right. Well, I've heard a lot of great things about Hogwarts, so I guess it'll be a new experience," Lily said. I rolled my eyes at her and burst out laughing. That was certainly one way to put it, but I had always hoped she would be able to go there because I know she would have a great time there, as I did. I bit my lip and thought about the first time I went to Hogwarts.

"All right. Well, it started September 1st, and I went through the barrier, and there was this train..."

Rhianna walked through the barrier. Her parents had just dropped her off and left. She looked around. She didn't know anybody and wasn't sure she would make any friends. She was entering her sixth year at a new school. She'd been taught in Italy for all her life. She climbed onto the train, trailing her bag behind her, looking for an empty compartment. She found one and went inside. She lifted her trunk up on the shelf and sat down. She brushed her hair out of her eyes when she heard the compartment door slide open. She looked at the door and saw a tall guy with shaggy black hair and beautiful hazel eyes. He seemed to be just standing there looking at her.

She then heard a voice say, "Padfoot what's wrong?"

The owner of the voice appeared. Looking over the stranger's shoulder, Rhianna noticed that he was just a little shorter than the boy with gorgeous eyes. This other boy had brown hair, hazel eyes, and glasses to go with it. He gave Rhianna a smile.

"Hi," he said. He pushed the other guy who he'd called Padfoot out the way and walked into the compartment. He grinned and sat down across from Rhianna. "I'm James."

She smiled and nodded. "I'm Rhianna,but my friends call me Anna," she said quietly.

Another two people entered the compartment. One was kind of small, and he kind of looked like a rat. She gave him a small smile. The other boy who sat beside her was rather nice looking. He had fairer hair than the rest. But Anna's eyes were fixated on the first boy that had appeared. He was still just standing there watching her as well.

The one sitting beside her and grinned and said, "Well its very nice to meet you, Anna. I'm Remus, and the one sitting beside James is Peter, and the other one is Sirius," he said. James was watching Sirius. So that was what his name was. i Kind of suits him, that name, /i Anna guessed. She looked at Sirius and he tilted his head. She thought she saw him blush, but he sat down beside Remus.

James raised an eyebrow but shook it off. He wasn't going to interfere, but he knew his best friend had a thing for this new girl. She i did /i look pretty. He brushed his fingers through his dishevelled hair and was kind of sad he hadn't seen Lily yet, but he knew she had prefect duties first.

"So Anna, where do you come from?" Peter asked suddenly.

Sirius suddenly came to attention. He seemed to be listening intently and waiting for an answer, but at the same time looking very complacenet about it.

"I'm from Italy. I was born there and went to school there until my dad got transferred. So I'm coming to Hogwarts for my last two years of school," she said as she smoothed out her clothes. "My parents are both wizards. They like the quiet, normal life. My dad grew up in England, but my Mum's Italian, so that's why we decided to move there, for a more private life. But when he got transferred, they asked him whether he wanted to go to America, or come here, and he said he'd rather come here. So here, I am happier than ever because I've only come to England for holidays to see my grandparents, and they've always begged my parents to let me come stay with them." Anna shrugged a little and looked down. She rarely ever blurted anything out like that to anyone. She just felt at ease with these five people and she sensed that they would probably make a big impact on her life.

The four friends nodded, and then the compartment door opened again and Rhianna saw a girl with long flowing red hair and stunning green eyes. She was looking at the boys, until her eyes landed on Rhianna and she grinned.

"Your the new girl? I'm Lily Evans," she said.

Anna smiled and nodded. "I'm Rhianna Graham, and yes, I'm the new girl."

Lily walked over to James and kissed him on the lips. i Ah, so they were together then, /i Rhianna thought and smiled as Lily sat on James' lap. They looked happy together, a which Anna always thought was very rare in couples.

Lily looked over at Sirius, as he seemed to be preoccupied with something. She wondered what was up with him, and then looked at James.

She leaned down to her boyfriend's ear and

whispered, "Whats wrong with Sirius? He seems very preoccupied with something."

James smirked and looked over at Sirius who was now (oh my i god, /i gasped James) i reading /i something. But that wasn't the unusual thing. The book was i upside down /i .

James grinned and shook his head. "I think he likes this Rhianna girl," he said to Lily. She raised an eyebrow and looked between the two.

To be continued...


	2. Chapter 1

Authors' Notes: I've changed Isabella to Aileana Gordon she goes by Leana and she looks like Maggie Grace who starsas Shannon on Lost. Also the last part is through Leana's eyes

Chapter 1

Rhianna walked into the Gryffindor common room, looked around, and smiled . The place was beautiful and mesmerising. It had been a half an hour since the feast had ended. After it, Lily and James had shown her around the school, and now they had made it to the place that Rhianna would call home for the next year. She smiled as she saw the fireplace and everyone sitting  
around; it had a nice feel to it. Rhianna closed her eyes and took a deep breath in as she smelt the wood of the burning fire. Her eyes swept the room seeing if any other of her friends were sitting in the common room.

Her eyes came to rest on two figures sitting at a table playing wizard chess. She noticed they were Remus and Sirius. She walked over, pulled over an armchair, and sat down on it.

"Mind if I watch you boys?" she asked.

She brushed her hair out of her eyes and saw the two boys look over at her and smile. At least, Remus did. Sirius just seemed to look down at the board in front of him, and glance nowhere near her eyes.

Remus shook his head and said, "No, of course not I'm getting my ass kicked by my friend here, but there's nothing new there!" He smiled and shrugged.

Rhianna grinned and nodded. She looked at the board and shook her head. She didn't understand why anyone enjoyed this game. She found it rather boring.

"Where are James and Lily?" Remus inquired.

Sirius smirked and looked at Remus with a cocked head. "There's no real guess there, Remus. They're probably out somewhere snogging. I mean, i literally /i , nothing new there," Sirius concluded, shaking his head slightly. He brushed his dark hair out of his eyes and looked at Rhianna. He found her, for some unknown reason, rather fascinating. I mean, he'd liked girls before, but this was different. He couldn't tell how or why it was different, he just could. He'd had flings, been a heartless idiot, and thrown the girls away, but Rhianna...he wanted to realy know about.

Rhianna smiled shyly and looked in her bookbag for her notebook as the boys went back to their game. She pulled it out and bit her lip, concentrating on the two boys in front of her; she was sketching them. Sketching was her passion. It took her mind off of the many different things that were happening in the world such as war and things like that. She was using a small quill that she had used a lot since her grandmother had bought it for her before she died. She sighed softly and erased something, then went back to drawing. She finished it and closed the book. She noticed they were both watching her and that they had finished their game as well.

"What was that?" Remus asked.

Rhianna shrugged and shook her head. "Nothing, really. Just a passion I've had since I was a little girl. Drawing, especially people, fascinates me and they are like memories that I can keep," she said. She gave them a sheepish smile and put it away as she brushed her brown hair away from her eyes. It was an odd feeling, but she was scared that they wouldn't accept her. Rhianna felt that people had turned away from her because they had thought she was too weird. She had her quirks, but it was always hard to make new friends. She had a few trust issues, and she generally didn't let anyone in.

Sirius tilted his head. Rhianna was hiding something, and he wasn't too good at pinpointing things such as lying in people. Remus and James had always been better at that. He gave her a tight smile.

"Come on, there are some places that Lily wouldn't have let James show you. She's a spoil sport, but she has her reasons like no breaking rules," Sirius said. Rhianna nodded and stood up. Sirius turned to Remus and looked at him. "You coming Mooney?"

Remus looked between the two of them. He should go along to make sure Sirius doesn't get her into too much trouble, but at the same time, he could tell his friend would like some time alone with this girl. He just hoped that he wouldn't do something stupid and push her to the brink where she'd never want to speak to any of them again.

"No its okay you two go on ahead. I have some studying to do anyway," he said.

Rhianna smiled and followed Sirius out of the common room. She didn't know why, but somehow she thought that she was probably undoutably going to end up in some sort of trouble with this guy. Not to say that wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but she'd only just started at Hogwarts, so maybe it was a bad thing.

"So where exactly are we going?" Rhianna asked.

Sirius looked back at her and smirked. "Don't worry. You'll see when we get there. I'm not going to get you into trouble, it's just something everyone should see when they come here," he said.

Okay, so that was a slight bit of a lie on his part. You didn't need to see this place, but it was beautiful standpoint. Sirius led Rhianna up some stairs.

Rhianna looked apprehensive. Where was he taking her, and why was he taking her there in the first place? She didn't precisely by the whole, "you-have-to-see-this." She'd heard that line before, and mostly whenever she did something like that, she always got into trouble.

"All right, I guess. But if you get me into trouble..." she started eyeing him carefully.

He looked at her, stunned, and put a hand to his chest in a most dramatic way. "Who, me? Sirius Black? I i never /i get anyone in trouble. I don't even know how to cause trouble!" he told her, feigning hurt.

As he watched Rhianna carefully, he saw a small smile forming on her lips, but at the same time, he could see her trying to suppress her urge to laugh.

"I'm being very serious here, and you're i laughing at me. /i I don't know if you deserve to see this place anymore."

Rhianna bit her lip and pouted. "I'm sorry, Sirius. I promise I'll be on my best behaviour, and I won't laugh at you. Scout's honour," she said, holding up her right hand.

Sirius smiled and nodded. "All right, I believe you. But you have to promise me that when I ask you to, you'll close your eyes and won't open them till I tell you too," he stated gently.

She hoped that some way she would trust him with this and not question him, though she had just met him and hardly knew anything about him.

Rhianna shrugged and nodded. "Sure, I'll do that. Just make it into a little adventure of some sort," she asked. She glared at him slightly. "But if you let me fall, I am never talking to you again." She continued walking up the stairs, following him. She brushed her fingers over her dishevelled robes, trying to straighten them, but it didn't seem to help in anyway. They seemed to actually get worse. The duo finally arrived at a door and they stopped.

"Are we here?"

He nodded and smiled as she closed her eyes without him even having to ask. He opened the door into the tower and he led her in.

James and Lily were walking back to the Gryffindor common room after their long stroll around the lake. They'd nearly been caught by Filch, but had gone under James' invisibility cloak which seemed to really come in handy when they needed it. Lily stepped through the porthole and no one was in the common room. She bit her lip slightly and turned to James as he came through.

"Seems we're alone." Lily grinned.

James looked around and nodded. "So it seems, but whatever could we do now that we're alone again?" He asked slightly raising an eyebrow. He was teasing her, and she knew it. He loved doing this. They always came down a bit later and sat together. Sometimes they would fall asleep on the couch wrapped in each other's arms, and then get a load of lip the next morning from Sirius because of it.

Lily smiled, grabbed his hand, walked over to the couch and sat him down. James lay back and opened his arms so she could lay against his chest. She sat down between his legs and lay back with her head on his chest.

"I've missed holding you, you know," he whispered softly in her ear.

She sighed and put her arms on his and kissed his neck softly, "I know I've missed being held by you as well. I mean, I know we saw each other a week ago, but it wasn't really all that fun." Lily sighed heavily. She looked at him trying not to think about what had happened last week it felt like a million miles away from where she currently was.

James felt her tense and looked down at her. What had happened to her from the time that she left the house, to coming back here? He'd been worried about her while she had still been the friendly and sweet Lily Evans he had known. He could almost sense something was wrong. It felt odd, as it may seem to others he had an affinity for these types of things.

"Lils, are you okay?" He asked. James looked at her, hoping that she would answer the question.

Lily knew she wouldn't be able to keep this from him forever, but she sure as hell could try, right? "Its nothing, James. It's just my sister. She was annoying me more than usual last week and she upset me a little as well saying nasty things about you," Lily said. She sighed and brushed her hair away from her face. "She and that atrocious man she calls her 'boyfriend' announced their engagement. God I i hate /i Vernon, but they deserve each other."

James laughed. He had met Vernon before and knew exactly what Lily meant. He seemed to always have too much to say about a topic. He knew that Lily's father, Richard, hated him but on the other hand, liked James very much. Richard didn't understand why Petunia couldn't find someone as nice as Lily's boyfriend. "I bet your father about hit the roof when they said it." James grinned.

Lily grimaced and nodded. "Oh yes, he certainly did. And when he said to Petunia later why couldn't she find someone as good as you, she about exploded! It was rather quite funny I must tell you," she said shaking her head. She hated lying to James, but she had to. That fact could never come out or it would ruin everything that she'd fought for. She knew that eventually he would find out, but it would better for him to find out later than sooner.

"So did you and Sirius enjoy the rest of your week?"

James nodded. "Yes, we did. We had a bit of fun terrorizing the bullies that picked on the younger kids, but that was about it," he said. He looked at the porthole and then up at the stairs and then back at Lily's face. "What would you think of Sirius if he hooked up with the new girl, Rhianna?"

Lily smiled and then laughed slightly. "He probably would be quite interesting if she could be the one to tame the wild beast that Sirius is," she said giggling mildly. She somehow doubted that it would happen. i But you never know /i , Lily thought. Sirius could finally find someone that shared in his happiness and find love like Lily and James had, or the love that Remus and Leana had. Lily hoped so.

James nodded. "Yea, it would be interesting, but someone's got to eventually do it right. A crazy lady that somehow makes him see sense and whatever else Sirius needs," he said. James looked at the time. It was past midnight ,and he wrapped his arms around Lily's waist slightly. He could have sworn he heard a gasp when he squeezed her middle. But it could have been his imagination, but then he heard it again, but louder. He knew something was wrong. "My Lily what are you keeping from me?" he asked.

Lily bit her lip. i Damn. Why did I have to gasp and wince/i She felt like hitting herself right now.

"James there's something I have to tell you now. You have to promise me that you'll let me finish before you say anything. All right? You promise?" She asked.

James bit his lip and nodded. "All right, I promise I won't say anything until you tell me your finished," he said. Now he was worried. He didn't like the way this was going one bit.

Lily looked at him and sighed. "All right. It started after I left your house."

I walked down the stairs from the girls common room. I'd heard Sirius and the new girl--um, what was her name again?--so yes, oka,y it had only been a few hours, and I couldn't remember what her name was. So sue me! Rhianna! Ah yes, that's it! That's what the girl's name was. She was nice enough and Sirius, God help the poor girl, seemed to i like /i her. I saw Remus sitting on the couch staring at the fire. I snuck up behind him and wrapped my arms around him.

"Hi baby," I whispered softly into his ear.

Remus jumped and I laughed softly. A full moon was coming up, so he was a little angsty, but he gave a small laugh and pulled me over the couch. I snuggled against his side as we looked deep into the fire's flames. This was the best thing about him and I. We didn't need to say anything to each to just enjoy each others company. He nibbled softly on my ear.

"You know, one da,y you'll give me a heart attack and then what will you do?" He asked.

I chuckled and shook my head. "I don't think that will ever happen, Remus. You have a strong heart." I grinned and kissed his nose. I bit my tongue. I didn't know what would happen the next few weeks, but it scared me and I didn't like that. I knew somehow that life would never be the same again...

To be continued.

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Hmm I wonder where Sirius has taken Rhianna and what's Lily about to tell James? That's for me to know and for you all to find out. Tune in next time to see what happens!


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